Soyuz

ARTICLES ABOUT SOYUZ BY DATE - PAGE 3

The crew of the Soyuz capsule that landed hundreds of miles off target in Kazakhstan last weekend was in serious danger during the descent, the Interfax news agency in Moscow reported Tuesday. Interfax quoted an unidentified space official as saying the capsule entered Earth's atmosphere with the hatch first instead of with its heat shields leading the way. --------- FROM NEWS SERVICES

The crew of the Soyuz space capsule that landed hundreds of miles off target in Kazakhstan was in serious danger during the descent, a Russian news agency reported Tuesday. The capsule entered Earth's atmosphere Saturday with the hatch first instead of its heat shield, so the hatch sustained significant damage, a Russian space official said. In addition, the crew couldn't communicate properly with the ground. ---------- Page compiled from Tribune news services

A technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft on a wild ride home Sunday, forcing Malaysia's first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts to endure eight times the force of gravity before their capsule landed safely. All three were fine, with medical tests showing they were not injured during the steeper-than-usual descent, Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said. The Soyuz touched down at 5:36 a.m. CDT, more than 200 miles west of the designated landing site on the steppes of Kazakhstan, Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said.

After drinking heavily, an astronaut flew on a Russian spacecraft and another was cleared for flight on a space shuttle, said the chairman of an independent panel of outside experts Friday, citing unverified interviews. The panel's report on astronaut health, released Friday, said NASA officials failed to listen to flight surgeons and other astronauts who warned of safety risks because some astronauts had too much to drink. In one incident, an astronaut was said to have been impaired by alcohol before a planned shuttle liftoff that was delayed by mechanical problems.

Russia's space agency has signed a contract with U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen to be the next space tourist, a deal that would make the 60-year-old scientist only the third tourist to visit the International Space Station. Olsen could fly to the orbiting station as early as October, when the next Soyuz mission is scheduled to bring supplies and a new crew to the station, a spokesman for the Russian agency said Wednesday. Olsen, founder of a New Jersey-based infrared-camera maker, resumed training in May at a site just outside Moscow for the flight on a Russian-built Soyuz spaceship.

Russia's space agency has signed a contract with U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen to be the next space tourist, a deal that would make the 60-year-old scientist only the third tourist to visit the international space station. Olsen could fly to the orbiting station as early as October, when the next Soyuz mission is scheduled to bring supplies and a new crew to the station, said Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian agency. Olsen, founder of a New Jersey-based infrared camera-maker, resumed training in May at a site just outside Moscow for the flight on a Russian-built Soyuz spaceship.

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian crew to Earth after six months at the International Space Station hurtled through the atmosphere and landed in Kazakhstan on Saturday evening. The Soyuz TMA-4 carrying cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and American partner Mike Fincke touched down Sunday about 55 miles north of Arkalyk. At Mission Control outside Moscow, where American and Russian space officials gathered, applause broke out at news of the landing. Padalka and Fincke had been in space since April.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao, docked safely at the International Space Station on Saturday, despite a last-minute glitch that sent the spacecraft speeding toward the station. MADRID BOMBING UPDATE: Allekema Lamari, one of the alleged ringleaders of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, was identified on Friday as one of seven suspects who blew themselves up during a police raid on their apartment, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A Russian rocket carrying a new Russian-U.S. crew to the International Space Station lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Thursday. For Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao, it was the first mission in a Soyuz spacecraft, breaking the nearly 30-year tradition of having at least one crewman with previous experience in piloting the capsule. Chiao and Sharipov have flown U.S. space shuttles; Shargin is a rookie. The Soyuz TMA-5 lifted off at 7:06 Moscow time and was due to dock with the station in two days.